Jason Williams, alias JW, well known for his “Palance” partnership with Ancil “Blaze” Isaac, is entering the political arena. Williams gives thumbs-up in front of the Red House on Tuesday before his official swearing in as a Government Senator.

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Jason Williams, alias JW, well known for his “Palance” partnership with Ancil “Blaze” Isaac, is entering the political arena. Williams gives thumbs-up in front of the Red House on Tuesday before his official swearing in as a Government Senator.

Newly appointed PNM Senator Jason Williams, also know as “JW”, had his first brush with parliamentary protocol on Tuesday, when House Speaker Christine Kangaloo put him out of the Senate for ten minutes.

Earlier on, Williams, 41, was officially sworn in to the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago. Williams is also the PNM candidate for Barataria/San Juan. He replaced resigned senator and public utilities minister Robert Le Hunte.

Asked about reports that he was put out of the chamber because his phone rang, Williams, said: “The phone did not ring. I was opening an app on Google. It made some noise. I came out for ten ­minutes and I went back in.”

A quick learner

Williams also described his first day on the job as “interesting”. “I have to learn the process, but I am a quick learner. I will be viewing the ­proceedings from that angle.”

JW and fellow media personality ­Blaze (Ancil Isaac) won the Road March crown in 2010 with the wildly popular “Palance”.

Trinidad and Tobago has been spared the most “vulgar” displays of systemic racism. But we are not immune.

This is the view of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

Asked about the developments taking place in the US, which have led to anti-racism demonstrations all over the world as countries grapple with insidious and systemic racism and which in Trinidad and Tobago has played out in strong reaction to racist and insensitive statements by some nationals, the Prime Minister said: “The fear that we have today is that there seems to be a new normal that is developing where the higher values that we thought we were ascribing to and the gains that we were making could be so easily lost.